A drive cycle profile is a collection of information describing the operation of a vehicle over a period of time or distance. For example, a drive cycle profile may include a vehicle's speed, time, and location over the course of a typical trip, over a particular time period, over a distance traveled, or over a lifetime of the vehicle. This information about typical vehicle use can then be consumed by vehicle simulation models, advanced driver assistance systems, and the like.
In some existing solutions, drive cycle profiles are collected by installing a data logging device in a vehicle to record the drive cycle profile information. This solution is limited in that new drive cycle profiles cannot be generated quickly, but instead must be collected in real time, and can only be collected for routes that were actually traveled while the data logging device was installed. In another existing solution, when drive cycle profiles are needed for simulation models, an existing database of drive cycle profiles previously created from data logging activities is consulted. However, this solution is also limited to drive cycle profiles previously collected from routes actually traveled.
What is needed is a system that is not constrained to using data that has been collected from actual vehicle operation.